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A 24-year-old man presented with a persistent headache of 5 day’s
duration. It had increased in severity several hours before coming
to the ED. The headache was relatively constant and had intermittent
exacerbations. It was bitemporal, but worse on the right than left.
At the time of his initial evaluation, the pain was rated 5/10
in severity. He had taken 800 mg of ibuprofen with partial relief.

There was no associated fever, sinus congestion, neck stiffness,
or visual or focal neurological symptoms. There was no family history
of migraine or other headache disorder. The patient had begun his
third year of law school 3 weeks earlier.

Examination of a head CT in a patient with headache begins by
looking for symmetry and midline shift. Next, the basilar cisterns
are examined for evidence of SAH. Ventricular size and shape are assessed;
ventricular enlargement may be a sign of hydrocephalus. Finally,
several serious disorders can produce other, sometimes subtle, CT
findings should be sought.

On this patient’s head CT,
there is no midline shift, mass effect, or asymmetry. The basilar
cisterns and ventricles are normal. On image 7 (Figure 2A), there
is a small hyperattenuating region (white) in the posterior midline.
This represents clotted blood. However, rather than being an extra-axial
hematoma, it represents clotted blood within a cerebral venous sinus.
It is located at the confluence of the superior sagittal sinus and
transverse sinuses (the torcula) (Figure
3). On image 8 (Figure 2B), there is diffuse hyperattenuation in
the region of the transverse sinuses. These findings are due to
cerebral venous sinus thrombosis.